New Build - Raid

[PhilGSmith]

I note that Rob in his assembly instructions states that when you are about to install XP you need to get your drivers for raid which for his motherboard are on a diskette that come with the motherboard.

My motherboard (ASUS P5KC) doesn't. Therefore I have to create a raid driver disc, which looks simple enough, using the support CD that came with the MB.

I have two questions. Do I need to install these drivers if all I am going to do is have one hard drive (SATA II), with a few partitions.

If I don't install them and at some point in the future get another drive and wish to set up a RAID set, can I just load the drivers, or doe sit create problems.

I understand that that I have to press F6 etc when installing XP, which might mean I can't install them at a later date if i choose not to when given the opportunity.

Phil

[PhilGSmith]

My MB manual says.

A floppy disk with theRAID driver is required when installing Windows XP OS on a hard drive disk drive that is included in a RAID set.

As I only intend to use one hard drive then I assume I can ignore. Yet Rob's assembly instructions seem to imply that I still need to install this driver because I am installing a SATA II drive, irrespective of whether I intend to go RAID or NON RAID.

Any thoughts anyone !!

[PhilGSmith]

I am now getting really confused !!

To quote assembly guide:-

Motherboards like the MSI K8N Neo Platinum that support SATA hard drive should come with a floppy disk that contains the SATA drivers. This floppy disk is needed at this time since the nForce3 SATA RAID Driver is installed during the Windows XP Setup. The floppy disk that comes with the MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard is labeled "nforce3 SATA RAID Driver".

So will my RAID driver disk I make from my support CD contain the SATA drivers. If not where do I get them. Can't see them on the ASUS site !!

[The Wise Monkey]

You do not need any additional drivers if you are only using one HD. I know these things are very confusing - the call the drivers SATA RAID, and you think "Well, which one is it?!"

If you are planning to use RAID at a later date, then you would only be able to use mirroring i.e. RAID 1, which you could achieve by 'repairing' XP. What I mean by this is booting from the XP CD again, pressing Enter to install a new XP partition, press F8 to agree with the blurb, then you should get an option to "Repair this XP Installation" by pressing R.This way, you don't lose any of your programs - you just upgrade XP to itself. You will lose your bookmarks and any other XP settings though.

[Amosmoses33]

Your motherboard didnt come with a CD? My asus board did, and it had those on there.

[PhilGSmith]

No it came with a CD, but I have to create a floppy from the CD re the raid drivers.